Chandrakant Patil won from Kothrud in Pune district. (File photo)
Maharashtra BJP chief and state minister Chandrakant Patil, who won from Kothrud in Pune district in the just concluded Assembly polls, has decided to distribute sarees to women in his constituency as a 'Bhau-beej' gift.
Mr Patil, who was earlier termed as an "outsider" by his rivals since he hails from Kolhapur district, won from Kothrud by defeating MNS candidate Kishor Shinde by over 25,000 votes in the state Assembly elections held last week. "I thought on this 'bhau-beej' (to be celebrated on Tuesday), I should do something for my sisters who are economically backward, live in slums and work as domestic helps. I appealed to some of my friends and several of them have responded positively by giving new sarees," he said.
He said the saree distribution exercise will be restricted to his Kothrud constituency. "This year, we are starting with Kothrud, but from next year, my target would be to implement this exercise in all eight constituencies of Pune," he said.
"I believe in giving...last year on my birthday, I wanted to give school uniform fabric and shoes to girls in Marathwada as there was drought. I appealed my well-wishers to help me, instead of greeting me with bouquets," he said. Mr Patil said as his well-wishers responded positively, he could give the uniform material to 35,000 girls and shoes for 5,000 of them.
He said there was no set limit on the number of sarees to be distributed in Kothrud. "It depends on how much help in terms of sarees is being received," he said.
The senior BJP leader has requested corporators from Kothrud to help him in distributing sarees among women in their respective wards. "If they refuse, I will ask my friends to help me in the distribution," he said. BJP corporator from Kothrud Amol Balwadkar said he has received around 2,000 sarees from Mr Patil's office which would be distributed among women by Monday evening. Mr Patil said he has also procured some solar lamps from a Delhi-based firm which will be distributed among chairpersons of residential societies in the district. "I have sent 50 solar lamps in every constituency of Pune and asked the local party office-bearers to distribute them to chairpersons of the housing societies," he said.